What a wonderful end to this arc from Brian K. Vaughan! There's a lot going on here that I'm very pleased with ranging from how Faith currently sees the Mayor, her fight with Gigi and its somewhat surprising end, Buffy and Giles being on the outs, Faith and Giles creating an equal partnership, and the surprisingly intriguing reveal of the season's "Big Bad." Most of the material here could have been extremely overwraught and irrelevent, but so much of it turns out to have notable character significance. In all honesty, this is the very first time this season that I can say I don't have one major problem with an issue. So lets just dive right in!

I really can't express how pleased I am Vaughan didn't ruin Faith's relationship with the Mayor. Unlike what Whedon's done with Warren and S6, Vaughan avoids the trap of making repeat viewings of S3 less impactful by sticking true to what originally happened. What we see is what could easily be a deleted scene right out of "Graduation Day Pt. 1" (3x21) where the Mayor lays on even more genuine love for Faith. Her speech to herself is particularly tasty: "Scumbag. That's what most people think of the last guy who put me in a dress. But I don't know. Dude may have been a snake... but he wasn't a dog. Everybody thinks he was, like, exploiting me or whatever, but that's not how it felt. So I totally get how chicks can get mixed up in the wrong crap. Even today, it's still hard to look back at my time with that guy... and feel anything but loved." Thank you Vaughan! You deserve a big round of applause for making me love the Faith/Mayor relationship even more.

Having a flashback with the Mayor isn't just a fun treat, it's also relevant to the situation at hand. Even in the midst of a fight, Faith is doing her best to talk Gigi down and convince her that she's being used by Roden. Gigi says, "I should have listened to Roden." Faith quips back, "Who, Lucky Charms? If you want someone to be pissed at, try him. Trust me, dude is gonna be the death you." Faith is speaking from personal being-stabbed and put-into-a-coma experience. Similar to how the Mayor was to Faith, Gigi says, "He may push me, but Roden's also my best mate. Something I doubt you've ever had." Oh how I love it when everything ties together like this to develop a character.

What makes everything work here is how the relationship between Gigi and Faith has been built up just enough to the point where I buy their connection to each other. As "Pt. 2" really emphasized, they definately have some things in common. Faith's experience with the Mayor is really front and center here, which is why there's so much subtext referring to him in this dialogue. It all comes together when Faith really hits the mark telling Gigi "part of you knows something ain't right... 'cause you've never deserved to be loved by anybody." Wow, an extremely insightful comment from Faith that really shows how much she's understanding herself now and how far she's come since the old days. The fact she can reflect back on her time with the Mayor now and make these kind of conclusions says a lot.

It's at this point when Faith accidentally kills Gigi, which really brings everything full circle right back to Allan Finch the Deputy Mayor. All of Faith's development up until this point is succinctly moved forward here. The slaying of the Deputy Mayor in "Bad Girls" (3x14) is the event that sent Faith into darkness. The slaying of Gigi here, after all that growth, is what pulls Faith fully back into the light -- albeit a light gray light.

Afterwards, Faith and Giles -- who's not on speaking terms with Buffy anymore (more on this in a moment) -- both have a moment of bonding when Faith calls him on his own slaying of a human (Roden). He says, "It's a side of myself I'd rather not expose to those under my watch, but I have used lethal force before." Faith aptly responds, "Don't make it any easier." Giles: "No, it doesn't." It's about at this point when Faith comes up with the idea of spending her time now to try to help others like Gigi. This is really a beautiful development for Faith which I couldn't be happier with. Not only does it make sense out of what came before, but the idea of Faith using her knowledge and experiences in an effort to help bring troubled slayers back from the brink is simply brilliant. Giles' suggestion of working together, as equals, is simply bonus joy. It's beginning to look like Faith is Giles' new "main girl."

This, of course, leads me to thinking about why Buffy and Giles aren't on the best of terms. Essentially their conversation here involves Buffy demanding Giles fill her in on Faith's mission and Giles refusing to give that information, saying "...No. I don't want you to be any part of this." I believe their issues very clearly stem from the events of "Lies My Parents Told Me" (7x17). Giles has been up to all kinds of shady stuff behind Buffy's back, although none of it seems to be completely opposed to Buffy's agenda. I just have a feeling that Giles really isn't on the same page as Buffy anymore and possibly disagrees with how Buffy has taken charge of this slayer army. I forsee some major rumblings between these two before this season is up. Although I'm intrigued by the follow-up from S7, I'm really hoping their issues eventually get the same stellar attention that Faith got here.

The last remaining bit to discuss in this issue is the fight sequences. Most of these in S8 have left me cold thus far (mainly due to the comic format), but this one really delivers. I think it works so well because of how powerful the character material is, which makes everything else resonate so much more. I particularly enjoyed the twist of Faith accidentally kicking Gigi onto an axe along with the manner in which Giles kills Roden. I did, however, find myself feeling that Faith tossing that book to Giles as Roden just stands there to be a bit contrived. Additionally, I felt a little short-changed by the fact that both of the arc's villains were easily dispatched at the end of the arc. This is a little too clean for my taste, but at least it was done in the service of characters containing far more depth than the villains. Plus, we also got our first clean shot of the Big Bad: Twilight (a.k.a. Floating Guy from "" [8x01]).

So, to wrap this one up I'll say that I was thoroughly satisfied by the way the arc panned out. I honestly didn't expect this great of a conclusion, and I really didn't expect to get this much tangible development for Faith. I find it odd that I'd (so far) prefer the work of a Buffy newcomer to that of Whedon himself. Although still flawed in spots, "No Future for You" is a solid, entertaining, and thoroughly accomplished piece of work of which I'm proud -- for the first time in comic form -- to say is part of the Buffyverse canon. Congrats Brian K. Vaughan! I hope to see you writing in S8 again!

The averaged overall score for the "No Future for You" arc rounds out at 90, an A-.